FRANCHISE NOTES

BASKETBALL: A seat "near the rafters" for last night's
Pacers-Bulls Game Seven was selling for $750 outside United
Center. Courtside seats were going for around $7,000 (Steve
Aschburner, Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 6/1)....The WNBA
Liberty drew 12,399 to the Sunday's preseason game against
the Mystics, including 3,000 Girl Scouts (N.Y. TIMES, 6/1).
NFL: In St. Paul, Charley Walters wrote that Marc
Ganis, who repped Tom Clancy's failed Vikings bid,
"telephoned Vikings owners to apologize for the embarrassing
mess in which he left them" (PIONEER PRESS, 5/31)....In
Cleveland, Tony Grossi wrote that N.Y. developer Howard
Milstein "tried to recruit" Step2 Founder Thomas Murdough to
his Browns ownership group, but was "rebuffed." Murdough is
also forming a bid group and said he wants "total Cleveland
involvement." In addition, the NFL has "stopped sales" of
luxury suites at Cleveland Stadium until an owner is named.
About 12 to 14 suites will be left unsold, because the NFL
"is preoccupied with selecting the owner, and the league
wants to reserve a number of suites for the owner to sell at
his discretion" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 5/31).